Manchester United vs. Tottenham Hotspur: Live Player Ratings

Tottenham Hotspur inflicted a fourth home Premier League defeat of the season on David Moyes and his Manchester United team with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Emmanuel Adebayor scored the opener in the first half, with Christian Eriksen heading the second Spurs goal—one minute before Danny Welbeck reduced the arrears. United pressed hard but couldn't find a way through for the equaliser.

United Player Ratings

Player

HT

FT

De Gea

6

6

Smalling

5

5

Evans

7

6

Vidic

6

6

Evra

5

5

Valencia

8

7

Cleverley

6

6

Carrick

7

7

Januzaj

6

8

Welbeck

6

7

Rooney

7

8

Kagawa

n/a

6

Hernandez

n/a

7

Young

n/a

6

b/r

Spurs Player Ratings

Player

HT

FT

Lloris

6

7

Walker

6

6

Chiriches

7

8

Dawson

8

9

Rose

5

5

Lennon

7

7

Capoue

8

8

Dembele

7

6

Eriksen

8

8

Adebayor

7

7

Soldado

6

6

Bentaleb

n/a

6

Chadli

n/a

6

Kane

n/a

6

b/r

First half

MANCHESTER UNITED—In attack, Valencia is the go-to man and has the beating of left-back Danny Rose. That looks to be United's best outlet to get back into the game.

Rooney has been impressive on the ball but frustrated off it as his team fail to create too many meaningful chances. The midfield held the ball well and dominated play in the opening 20 minutes, but have since lost both ground and control. More needed from Cleverley alongside Carrick.

Defensively, United have been opened up by diagonal passes and the pace of Aaron Lennon. It's a mis-match down that flank and could easily have cost more than one goal.

SPURS—After Lloris escaped an early moment of madness, he's been untroubled. Danny Rose is looking off the pace though and could do with more support against Valencia. Dawson has been outstanding centrally.

Capoue's positing and protection of the back-line has been a feature of Spurs' improvement as the game has gone on, while Eriksen's mobility continues to impress as he drifts in off the left flank to affect the game centrally.

Adebayor and Soldado might both have scored already—the former has done so and that's the difference at the break.

Second half

MANCHESTER UNITED—After a slow start, United finished by far the stronger side, though it took going two goals behind for that to take effect. Januzaj was excellent after switching to the right flank, but Hernandez and Welbeck were just a yard short of finding each other too often in attack.

None of United's three full-backs during the game enjoyed a particularly pleasing afternoon, while Moyes ended up with Rooney and Kagawa in central midfield as they dominated the late possession and searched for a route to goal.

SPURS—The centre-back pairing of Dawson and Chiriches arguably won Spurs the game with plenty of headed clearances, keeping a strong line and closing out the runners from midfield. Lloris was unorthodox and got lucky once or twice, but ultimately made telling saves too.

The front two caused problems on the counter and Eriksen had plenty of movement in the first hour of the game which gave Spurs a threat in attack.